The trip was not going to be too long, a half day at the most the villagers had said. Bula had made sure to pack lightly for the trip as they didn’t plan to stay out in the woods much tonight, and if they did they’d be on bedrolls. Besides considering what they were going to do once they got from the cabin, Bula was counting her steps and stopping every time she reached a thousand and taking a small knife and cutting a circle into the side of a tree with a number in it. “1…” Then “2…” then “3…”

Suddenly Leshy stopped and tilted her head “Bula. I see something over there.” Her hand raised and pointing towards a fallen log.

Pasho’s head turned and jogged over towards the log and dug around for a moment before standing up with a blue girl’s blouse and a bow. She moved over some rocks and got back on the path tossing them on the ground.

Bula tilted her head slightly and clicked her tongue for a moment. “Seems we are on the right path.” She looked up placing her hand on her forehead judging the position of the sun, and figuring they were near noon. She looked up the hill once more and shrugged at her pack and pulled her axe free setting it on her shoulder. “Just in case… Let’s be ready.”

The other sisters nodded and readied their weapons as they began heading up the hill once more. Bula in the lead she continued to further look out off the path and observe her surroundings, a few times she saw a bird fluttering by, or a fox sticking it’s head under roots off in the distance. ‘Normal forest life’ she thought to herself as she continued to count and mark trees. Then a rusttling noise came and she blinked a bit as something was making noise up ahead. “Morka. Get ready to fire.” Bula growled out in command.

Morka readied her crossbow and dropped to a knee as she prepared to fire her finger sliding over the trigger as she stared down taking aime ready to position her sights on whatever came into view.  Then with a crack and a crunch a wild hog came wandering across the path and Morka lowered the crossobw with a sight as it was followed by three piglets.

Bula started laughing as the other sisters did as well at their own edginess.

Morka just shook her head with a grin and stood completely straight looking to the others. “Big bad pig was gonna eat us huh? Too bad we don’t have time to get us some pork. Would be a nice treat.”

Bula knew what Morka was hinting at, but she was all business right now. The task at hand was more important. “We’ll have time to go hunting later Morka. For now we focus on our job.”

SO they began walking again step by step they moved through the dust of the path ignoring the game trails regardless of the fact it meant fresh kills. Instead they chewed on jerky and biscuits occasionally taking a sip of their water as they moved.